Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
Almost half of U.S. Internet users 'Google' themselves
12/17/2007 | 
Coverage
Linda Rosencrance, Computer World
'"As users post more information about themselves on social networking sites and elsewhere, they are also conducting more online searches about themselves, according to a new study. Almost half of all U.S. Internet users (47%) have searched for information about themselves online, up from 22% in 2002, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
This self-searching is a natural outgrowth of the transition into the Web 2.0 era of participatory media, said Mary Madden, a senior research specialist and one of the authors of the study, "Digital Footprints: Online Identity Management and Search in the Age of Transparency."
"Now that more of us are posting things online and in a wider range of places, we're leaving a bigger set of footprints behind us, so it's natural that we would become more curious about what they look like and who might see them," Madden said. "Now there's more out there to find and more tools to find it."
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